WCL Conference to Address Obama Administration's New Transparency Policies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 23, 2009 - American University Washington College of Law (WCL) is hosting an academic conference next week that will address the substance and priorities of new information policies to be adopted by the Obama Administration. This full-day program will be held at WCL on Thursday, Jan. 29, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and is being conducted by the Collaboration on Government Secrecy (CGS), a project housed at WCL since 2007. Its Web site (http://www.wcl.american.edu/lawandgov/cgs/) has since become a major source for information on the subject of government transparency.
Entitled "Information Policy in the New Administration," the conference will gather together a wide range of government openness advocates to review and discuss the recommendations that have been made for specific new policies on Freedom of Information Act disclosure, use of information technology, and electronic information dissemination, and other related subjects. Among the organizations represented are the National Security Archive, OMB Watch, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Project on Government Oversight, the Government Accountability Project, the ACLU, and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The conference was scheduled just nine days after the beginning of the Obama Administration with the expectation that, either in his Inaugural Address or in an early presidential memorandum, President Obama would heed the call to reverse the Bush Administration era of secrecy by that point - and this prediction turned out to be right on target.
In fact, President Obama issued two "Day One" memoranda that direct the head of the Office of Management and Budget, the Attorney General, and the Archivist of the United States to come up with recommendations for the issuance of a new "Open Government Directive" and a new Attorney General FOIA Memorandum within the next 120 days (i.e., by May 21). Now the conference will be a perfect opportunity to put into action his accompanying call for a more "participatory" and "collaborative" process of government policy formulation.
"CGS is very pleased that under these extraordinary circumstances the Washington College of Law will be able to play a foremost leadership role within the openness-in-government and academic communities on these vital areas of government reform," said CGS Executive Director Daniel J. Metcalfe. "It is time for an era of secrecy to give way to a new era of transparency, and the people we gather together certainly have both the experience and expertise to help show the way."
Toward that end, CGS plans to include within the conference a survey activity by which all participants can contribute to the development of consensus recommendations on the prioritization of policy actions, for prompt delivery to the Obama Administration. CGS is working in collaboration with the Journalism Division of American University's School of Communication to design the survey.
This program will also include a luncheon presentation by Gary M. Stern, General Counsel of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and it is anticipated that he will announce several NARA-related activities and perspectives in the FOIA and information policy area. Under both recent FOIA legislation and a Bush Administration memorandum on "pseudosecrecy"-- i.e., the increasing use by federal agencies of "safeguarding labels" such as "For Official Use Only" -- NARA now plays an increasingly visible role in the government-wide administration of such matters.
This conference (see further description below) is part of the annual Founders' Celebration, a series of events in spring 2009 at WCL that will explore some of the most important legal issues facing the nation and the world today. CGS held two such programs in 2008 and has two more scheduled to be held on March 16 ("FOI Day") and April 28 of this year.
A live webcast of the conference will be available throughout the day.
For additional information, please visit the CGS website at http://www.wcl.american.edu/lawandgov/cgs/. Contact the Office of Special Events and Continuing Legal Education by email at secle@wcl.american.edu or by calling (202) 274-4075. Media should contact Franki Fitterer at (202) 274-4279. All events take place at American University Washington College of Law, 4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.
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